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What's the most underrated thing about Pekin Community High School that outsiders don't know?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
1,712
High
STATE 834
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·PEKIN CSD 303·NCES 173111003245
Pekin Community High School
1903 Court St, Pekin, IL 61554 · (309) 347-4101 · Tazewell County
GRADES 09–12HIGH21-SUBURBTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL1,712 STUDENTS
Student : Teacher
15.5:1
110 FTE teachers
STATE 13.8:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
45%
763 students
STATE 56%
Community
5
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other high schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Grade 9 | 467 | 27% |
| Grade 10 | 421 | 25% |
| Grade 11 | 426 | 25% |
| Grade 12 | 398 | 23% |
Student demographics
19%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
STATE 69% · US 70%
Student head counts by race/ethnicity from federal NCES enrollment data. District, state, and US figures are each group's share of all public school students in that area (US excludes territories). Very small groups may be suppressed in the source, so categories do not always sum exactly to total enrollment.
Gender split
BeatsExpectations
Demographically-adjusted score · methodologyTier
UNDERPERFORMING
Bottom 10% of IL schools after controlling for student poverty
Actual proficiency
31.0%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
45.8%
based on IL schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-14.8pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 31% of students here test proficient in math and reading, below the roughly 46% typical for Illinois schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations compares each school with others at the same poverty level, not by raw scores, so a school lands here when its results trail those comparable schools, which is not the same as having low scores. A higher-scoring school can still fall in this tier if similar schools score higher still.
BeatsExpectations runs a per-state regression of proficiency on free/reduced-lunch share, then scores each school by residual. How this is calculated →
Schools most like Pekin Community High School
Pekin Community High School's state test result (31.0% proficient) is higher than 1 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pekin Community High School this school | 1,712 | 44.6% | 31.0% |
| Jersey Comm High School Jerseyville | 961 | 39.8% | 44.6% |
| Marion High School Marion | 1,075 | 48.1% | 36.6% |
| Mattoon High School Mattoon | 888 | 47.5% | 30.9% |
| Dixon High School Dixon | 760 | 44.2% | 33.0% |
| Civic Memorial High School Bethalto | 760 | 42.6% | 43.0% |
Matched among Illinois high schools on enrollment, the share of students from low-income families (eligible for free or reduced-price lunch), and racial and ethnic makeup. Proficient is the average share of students meeting the state standard across all of the school's state tests in 2023-24 and 2024-25, the same combined score our test-score rankings use. Online schools and schools serving specialized populations are not matched.
Where Pekin Community High School ranks
Among high schools| Measure | This school | In Illinois | In Tazewell County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 31.0% | #342 of 573 | #6 of 7 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 1,712 | #127 of 708 | #1 of 7 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 15.5:1 | #377 of 528 | #5 of 6 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 18.8% | #387 of 537 | #4 of 6 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 44.6% | #349 of 578 | #2 of 7 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -6.1% | #237 of 358 | N/A |
Ranked against other public high schools. Online schools are left out of every list, and test-score lists leave out schools that serve specialized populations. Each rank links to the full list. Arrows under a test-score rank show places moved since the prior test year, among schools tested both years.
4-year change
SY 2020-21 vs SY 2024-25Enrollment
1,712
-149 (-8%) vs 2020
+42% since 1990-91, when it was 1,209
Source: NCES Common Core of Data
Enrollment and staffing by year
| School year | Students | Teachers (FTE) | Students per teacher | Free and reduced lunch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 1,712 | 110.2 | 15.5:1 | 45% (763) |
| 2023-24 | 1,737 | 114.5 | 15.2:1 | 49% (843) |
| 2022-23 | 1,796 | 111.5 | 16.1:1 | 48% (866) |
| 2020-21 | 1,861 | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 2017-18 | 1,824 | 106.9 | 17.1:1 | 42% (774) |
| 2015-16 | 2,006 | 117 | 17.1:1 | 43% (872) |
| 2010-11 | 1,980 | 124 | 16.0:1 | 38% (745) |
| 2000-01 | 2,158 | 119 | 18.1:1 | N/A |
| 1990-91 | 1,209 | 67 | 18.0:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Pekin Community High School.
Since 2017-18: students down 6% (1,824 to 1,712); teachers up 3% (106.9 to 110.2).
About Pekin Community High School
In Pekin, Illinois, Pekin Community High School is a high-enrollment high school. It reported 1,712 students in grades 9 through 12 in 2024-25. That compares with an average of about 834 students for high schools in Illinois.
Federal records list Pekin CSD 303 as the district for Pekin Community High School.
The share of students at Pekin Community High School who are White is 90%. Smaller groups are 4% Hispanic and 4% multiracial. Tazewell County residents are about 93% White, a similar share. A diversity index of 19% means there is a 19% chance two randomly chosen students at Pekin Community High School are from different groups.
A staff of 110.2 full-time-equivalent teachers puts the student-to-teacher ratio at 15.5:1. Compared with the 13.8:1 average for high schools in Illinois, this school's ratio is higher. By family income, 45% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch.
BeatsExpectations compares each school's average proficiency rate across its state test results with a prediction based on free or reduced-price lunch eligibility. Pekin Community High School posts 31.0% against a 45.8% prediction, a bottom-10% result in Illinois.
In Tazewell County, median household income comes to about $77,982, roughly 28% of adults have a four-year degree or more, and the share of residents below the poverty line is 6%. The county's public schools total 56, with about 18,581 students.
Pekin Community High School is about 0.8 miles from Broadmoor Junior High School, its nearest public school. Within five miles are at least 8 other public schools. Of 8 schools in the immediate area with test results, Pekin Community High School ranks 5th on average proficiency.
By NCES locale, the school is Suburb: Large, or in a suburban area outside a principal city, within an urbanized area with a population of 250,000 or more.
In 2020-21, Pekin Community High School enrolled 1,861 students. By 2024-25, that number had fallen to 1,712.
People who know Pekin Community High School can post here about open houses, carpools, and field trips. Teachers and staff are welcome to share updates too.
Tazewell County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
130,290
Census ACS
Median income
$77,982
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
28%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
6%
Below federal line
Schools in county
56
18,581 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Pekin
- Wilson Intermediate SchoolMiddle · 600 students
- Washington Intermediate SchoolMiddle · 428 students
- Broadmoor Junior High SchoolMiddle · 387 students
- Jefferson Elementary SchoolElementary · 290 students
- Edison Junior High SchoolMiddle · 271 students
- C B Smith Elementary SchoolElementary · 264 students
Nearby schools
- Broadmoor Junior High School0.8 mi · 387
- Willow Elementary School1.0 mi · 192
- Pekin Preschool Family Ed Center1.2 mi · 201
- Dirksen Elementary School1.2 mi · 165
- Scott Altman Primary School1.2 mi · 189
- Wilson Intermediate School1.3 mi · 600
Frequently asked questions
About Pekin Community High SchoolHow large is Pekin Community High School?
Pekin Community High School enrolls approximately 1,712 students in grades 09-12.
Is Pekin Community High School an elementary, middle, or high school?
Pekin Community High School is a high school covering grades 09-12.
How many teachers does Pekin Community High School have?
Pekin Community High School employs 110 FTE teachers, for a student-to-teacher ratio of 15.5:1.
How diverse is Pekin Community High School?
Pekin Community High School reports a student body of 90% White, 4% Hispanic, 2% Black, 1% Asian, 4% Two or more.
Is Pekin Community High School public or private?
Pekin Community High School is a public K-12 school, overseen by Pekin CSD 303.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.